North and South in the ancient Central Andes: Contextualizing the archaeological record with evidence from linguistics and molecular anthropology

Matthias Urban,Chiara Barbieri

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2020.101233

Abstract

The Central Andes are characterized by the early emergence of complex societies and a chequered yet continuous cultural tradition. However, at least for certain points of time in the cultural development, the overall cohesiveness of this ‘culture area’ has been called into question, favoring an alternative perspective that emphasizes the existence of several relatively independent nuclei of development on the North Coast, the southern Peruvian Highlands and the Titicaca basin, with distinct cultural expressions and political organization. Here, we engage archaeological evidence and its interpretation with newly emerging perspectives from linguistics and genetics (modern and ancient DNA), including new targeted genetic analysis, to add fresh evidence to the question of the internal structure and cohesiveness of the ancient Central Andes as a culture area. The double cultural/biological approach points at a North vs. South structure bisecting the Central Andes that becomes appreciable ~2,000 years ago; however, as the evidence from all three disciplines indicates, too, the spheres have remained connected and hence maintained an overall cohesiveness. Our analysis suggests that demographic population structure precedes the constitution of distinct cultural domains, a pattern which is to be verified in other chronological transects in South America and at a global scale.

Highlights

Compared to other areas of the world, South America has a relative short history of human occupation
Another important caveat relates to data cov erage: as stated before, genetic studies have been focusing more in tensely on the Southern half of the Peruvian Andes, while the Northern regions would benefit from denser sampling
We take a broad perspective on the cultural and societal development of the Central Andes and what have been identified as nuclei of the over arching culture area on the North Coast, in the Southern Highlands, and in the Titicaca basin, where the first undisputed examples of state-level societies are in evidence

Summary

Introduction

Compared to other areas of the world, South America has a relative short history of human occupation. In one region of South America, the continuity between lowland coastal environments touched by the nutrient-rich Pacific Ocean (emphasized e.g. by Moseley, 1975) and the highly variable environments at higher altitudes (emphasized e.g. by Burger, 1992) created the setting of the emergence of cultural developments not found elsewhere in the continent. This region, known as the Central Andes, is usually considered the only area of South America –at the present state of research –which witnessed an indigenous cultural tra jectory that led to the “pristine” emergence of state-level societies (e.g. Haas et al, 1987, Lumbreras, 1999, Stanish, 2001). A variety of considerations point to an overall stability of the linguistic differentiation in parts of Northern Peru (Urban, 2019a: 225–231, 2019b), i.e. a situation of linguistic main tenance in a multilingual contact setting. For instance, the MochicaQuingnam dualism on the North Coast corresponds to slightly different cultural trajectories in the same regions where these languages are at tested in early historical times that goes back to at least Moche times; likewise, the clear presence of the Mochica language in the upper Piura valley where a Moche presence is attested (though its nature is not quite clear) is compatible with the assumption of an in situ development of the languages of Northern Peru with linguistically stable division through

Methods

Results

Conclusion